Peneflix MOVIE REVIEWS BY PENEFLIX
Traditionally, Christmas Day is movie mania, in my household; redundancy accomplished, at home, in pajamas with leftovers and my adult pacifier, the remote.
“Wonder Woman 1984” was a wonderous flop, “unsalvageable” by Gal Gadot, Chris Pine; Kristin Wiig as the scatterbrained sycophant, “Barbara/Cheetah” phenomenally miscast (perpetually locked in “Bridesmaids” mode) served as comic relief, guffawing, fawning until her “wish” is actualized; Pedro Pascal as bad boy “Max Lord” kept the film from total exsanguination, until the task became too overwhelming; poor editing encapsulated viewers in space with superficial, platitudinous prattle for an eternity; bludgeoning message of “be careful of what you wish for” was overelaborated, ad nauseam. A promising commencement was erased the moment “Diana Prince” morphed into adulthood.
ONE & ½ STARS!
THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN
Is a superbly well- performed film, revolving around historical figures, Professor James Murray, (1837-1915) (Mel Gibson) and Dr. William Chester Minor, (1834-1920) (Sean Penn); embryonic sources of the Oxford English Dictionary; wordsmiths will be kvelling at the sagacious, prodigious dialogue; Minor was an American army surgeon, institutionalized from 1872-1910 in England for murdering an innocent man; he answers Murray’s plea to submit words for the first edition of the Oxford Dictionary; Minor’s staggering fecundity brought the two together; Gibson and Penn, excavate to the core their personal best in depicting these unheralded geniuses. An “eye for an eye” reverberates in Minor’s exploitation of “assythment”.
FOUR STARS!!!!
Peneflix
